1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device for judging printing status of a printing device provided in a printer, a facsimile machine, and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been known a printing apparatus, such as a printer, a facsimile machine, and the like, provided with a printing device such as an ink jet print head formed with a plurality of nozzles. Ink is supplied to the print head from an ink tank provided within an ink cartridge. The print head will perform defective printing when ink runs out of the cartridge. The printing apparatus therefore detects whether or not the ink tank has run out of ink. For example, the printing apparatus may calculate the number of times printing has been performed by the print head. Or, the printing apparatus may directly detect the amount of ink remaining in the ink tank. When determining that the ink tank has almost run out of ink, then the apparatus displays a message for urging a user to replace the ink cartridge with a new one. This replacing operation can prevent the print head from performing defective printing.